Quite amazing that so many authors were not so good spellers. Would never have thought. Excellent video as always. So fascinating. Here is a little hack to differentiate stationary and stationery so you don't need to keep reaching for the dictionary. Think E for ENVELOPE for the word stationery. Can't remember who told me that. Also for the word accommodation think TWO CATS and TWO MICE. The other recipe for good spelling is reading a lot because I find that fixes the words in your mind and writing because of the movement between hand and brain. Not sure that typing on a computer has the same effect.
In a perfect world, everybody would speak Italian, Finnish of Georgian (the most phonetic languages I know of: if you know some more phonetic than those, let us know!). I blame the French for messing up English language...
Impossible to have gh at the beginning of a word? "Impossible" is an ironic word when we're discussing the irrational inconsistencies of English spelling.
Though also that convention only really applied to later systems such as Icelandic I believe; in their time writing English they were used interchangeably (and also ð is adapted from Latin d rather than being from a rune). Which makes sense bearing in mind it was only in Middle English (from French influence) that the fricatives even gained a non-allophonic voiced/voiceless distinction anyway!
I normally misspell "definite" on the first draft and unless I catch it while proof-reading it goes out into the world as "definate". "...ate" is a much, much more common ending. Used to always misspell "necessary" as well; tried to cram an extra "c" in at the front. That was because of the way it's pronounced. Once it solidifies in your brain, it's difficult to use the correct spelling, even when another part of your brain knows you usually misspell that word. It's spat out automatically.
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Quite amazing that so many authors were not so good spellers. Would never have thought. Excellent video as always. So fascinating. Here is a little hack to differentiate stationary and stationery so you don't need to keep reaching for the dictionary. Think E for ENVELOPE for the word stationery. Can't remember who told me that. Also for the word accommodation think TWO CATS and TWO MICE. The other recipe for good spelling is reading a lot because I find that fixes the words in your mind and writing because of the movement between hand and brain. Not sure that typing on a computer has the same effect.
E for envelope - I'll remember that.
My Dan Quayle moment was when I corrected a student who had written "he must", reminding him that the third person of singular required to add an "s".
thanks for your confession.
It's kind of comforting for me to learn that so many important people made spelling mistakes 😅
me too
Gideon never fails to teach me something new while tricking me with fun content!
I can't spell Necessary without the redline 😂😂😂😂
that's a common mistake. I used to do it too.
My pronunciation embarrassment was "anathema" - I'd never heard it said aloud once, and I said it the way my brain interpreted it as "anna theema".
interesting
In a perfect world, everybody would speak Italian, Finnish of Georgian (the most phonetic languages I know of: if you know some more phonetic than those, let us know!). I blame the French for messing up English language...
Impossible to have gh at the beginning of a word? "Impossible" is an ironic word when we're discussing the irrational inconsistencies of English spelling.
It is worse than that, because you can have gh at the beginning of an English word, but it can't say "f" if it is at the beginning.
Astounding! I knew this burden only partially, thank you for the whole story.
Thank you, professor, for this very informative video!
Tank yu.
This is one of the most interesting videos I've seen in a while, and I almost missed it because the original title didn't catch my eye
Thanks glad you like it.
Try Gaelic spelling, then English feels perfectly sensible
I think you mistakenly switched "eth" and. "thorn", the former pronounced VOICED, and the latter VOICELESS.
Though also that convention only really applied to later systems such as Icelandic I believe; in their time writing English they were used interchangeably (and also ð is adapted from Latin d rather than being from a rune). Which makes sense bearing in mind it was only in Middle English (from French influence) that the fricatives even gained a non-allophonic voiced/voiceless distinction anyway!
What could possibly go wrong?
exactly
🎉🎉
Tuff luv
I normally misspell "definite" on the first draft and unless I catch it while proof-reading it goes out into the world as "definate". "...ate" is a much, much more common ending.
Used to always misspell "necessary" as well; tried to cram an extra "c" in at the front. That was because of the way it's pronounced.
Once it solidifies in your brain, it's difficult to use the correct spelling, even when another part of your brain knows you usually misspell that word. It's spat out automatically.
"necessary" always got me at school. Thanks
See, you should have just kept in the Romans. Spelling reform will only come with the big proletarian revolution.